Westchester Lagoon disc golf course will open after summer

"We were getting a lot of negative responses," said Josh Durand, a planner and landscape architect for the Anchorage Parks and Recreation department who has worked closely with the city's frisbee golf programs.

The Westchester course was already redesigned in 2010, he said. Volunteers poured in 1,000 hours of work on that project.

City parks officials made the decision to close the disc golf course, which players say can see up to 400-500 rounds of disc golf daily, last fall.

"We had a lot of trouble with Ping G20 driver people drinking and making a lot of noise and the neighbors didn't like it too much," said Anchorage Police Department spokesman Lt. Dave Parker.

The online survey, which Durand said was advertised on social media and was available to anyone on the Parks and Recreation department's website, only got about 30 responses. Durand said he asked community members -- including a concerned neighbor and a disc golfer -- to read the comments and make recommendations.

"We think it's a definite asset," Durand said. "We really didn't want to see it be taken away."

Matt Forney, the former president of the Alaska Disc Golf Association, said he's disappointed by the move.

In August, the department sent out a survey asking the public about their experiences after hearing from many unhappy neighbors and users over the summer, Durand said.

What's to say, he asked, that if another course -- like Kincaid -- is expanded, disc golfers won't be chased out of there too?

Next summer the city may make the Westchester course open for permitted events, like organized disc golf competitions, Durand said. The city is also looking into expanding other existing disc golf ping g15 irons courses at Russian Jack Park and Kincaid Park.

"I sure as heck didn't receive notification of this public meeting," he said.

On Monday, a handful of disc golfers played an improvised version of the game without baskets on still-soggy ground at the park.

On a cloudless spring day, he was just happy to be walking around outside -- the true appeal of disc golf, he said.

He said he'd seen some of the rowdy behavior the city cited on the course, but it didn't seem threatening or even unusual.

The Parks and Recreation Commission decided to go with disc golfer Tim Kosednar's idea of making Westchester a winter-only course and potentially expanding or opening additional courses throughout discount golf clubs Anchorage for the summer season.

"I've definitely seen people drinking and smoking but I've seen people doing that on any random trail," he said.

"You can't limit everything because there's always going to be at least a couple of people that screw it up," he said.

Bubba and Tiger treat golf differently

All pros have their own way of doing things, some with minimal input from instructors to some who require constant consultation. It's probably no stretch to say that Watson and Woods are at opposite extremes. Watson says he'll quit if he ever needs a lesson; Woods is so immersed in the intricacies of the swing that he was bemoaning at the Masters being caught between the Hank Haney backswing and the Sean Foley downswing.

And as he said earlier this year at Doral: "You know some guys want somebody there. Some guys want somebody discount golf clubs there to cheer them up, to keep them going, to tell them that the swing looks good, to help them. I just choose not to. There's other guys that have a swing coach that chases them around everywhere they go. It's just all about preference, and for me it's just not having one.''

The fact that there is no exact right way to do it is one of the aspects that makes golf so fascinating, although seeing instructors on the driving range at tournaments from week to week gives credence to the idea that such is the norm -- and that Watson's way is unique.

Watson was laughing at himself at the end, the insinuation being that he's better off without a coach than the rest are with one.

It was nearly a year ago that Watson -- coming off a victory at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans -- caused a mild ripple when he suggested, unprompted, that Woods could do without all the instruction.

Watson, as should be clear to all who follow the Taylormade R11 irons game by now, is a self-made golfer who is proud of the fact that he's never had a swing coach. Woods is on the fourth major swing change of his career under the guidance of a third high-profile instructor.

"All of us are good at golf. Sometimes I think some of the great players, they get too wrapped up in the mental part.

"But yeah, when you start talking about other people trying to help you with your swing, look at this, look at that, I think they take a step back. So I'm hoping they all get coaches.''

Almost a year later, and with a green jacket in his closest, his comments have a little more value.

"It's just not my way," Watson said of having a teacher. "I'm good friends with Sean Foley. I'm good friends with Hank Haney, with Butch [Harmon.] I know them as people, I know Taylormade R11 driver as friends, but … I don't ask them for advice. It's just not the way I go about it.

You can bet that Woods feels differently, and it doesn't mean either is right or wrong. Just different ways of approaching the game.

"I think … yeah, I'll just go ahead and say it. I think Tiger is going the wrong way. I think he's so mental right now with his swing. Just go out there and play golf. He used to hit shots, used to bomb it, used to do all that stuff … I think sometimes he gets carried away on that. And a lot of guys do. The mental part of it, I get carried away sometimes. I think I'm not very good. I complain to [caddie Teddy Scott] all the time how bad I am at golf. He's like, shut up.